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HEARING 

BEFORE THE 

.COMMITTEE ON MILITARY AFFAIRS 
UNITED STATES SENATE 

SIXTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS 

SECOND SESSION 


ON 

S. 3192 

FOR THE PROMOTION OF CERTAIN OFFICERS OF THE 
UNITED STATES ARMY NOW ON THE RETIRED LIST 


APRIL 28, 1922 


Printed for the use of the Committee on Military Affairs 



103406 


WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 
1922 




COMMITTEE ON MILITARY AFFAIRS. 
JAMES W. WADSWORTH, Jr., New York, Chairman. 


FRANCIS E. WARREN, Wyoming. 
HOWARD SUTHERLAND, West Virginia. 
HARRY S. NEW, Indiana. 

SELDEN P. SPENCER, Missouri. 
ARTHUR CAPPER, Kansas. 

RALPH H. CAMERON, Arizona. 

HOLM O. BURSUM, New Mexico. 


GILBERT M. HITCHCOCK, Nebraska. 
DUNCAN U. FLETCHER, Florida. 
HENRY L. MYERS, Montana. 

MORRIS SHEPPARD, Texas. 
KENNETH D. McKELLAR, Tennessee. 
JOSEPH T. ROBINSON, Arkansas. 


GEORGE WHARTON PEPPER, Pennsylvania. 
CHARLES A. RAWSON, Iowa. 


R. E. Devendorf, Clerk. 

W. A. Duvall, Assistant Clerk. 


LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

RECEIVED 

L •» 2 3 1925 


DOCUMENTS DIVISION 




4 


i\T 

'jj 

JS~’ 



PROMO'l 


F CERTAIN RETIRED ARMY OFFICERS. 


FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 1922. 

United States Senate, 
Committee on Military Affairs, 

Washington, I). C. 

The committee met at 10.30 o’clock a. m. in the committee room, Capitol, 
Senator Wadsworth (chairman) presiding. 

The Chairman. Gentlemen, the committee has before it this morning a bill 
introduced by Senator Calder, S. 3192, for the promotion of certain officers of 
the United States Army now on the retired list. 

*• The bill is very short and it may be inserted in the record. 

(The bill is here printed in full, as follows:) 

[S. .3192, Sixty-seventh Congress, second session.] 

"A BILL For the promotion of certain officers of the United States Army now on the 

retired list. 

“ Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled, That the President of the United 
States, in his discretion, he, and he hereby is, authorized to appoint, by and 
with the advice and consent of the Senate, to the next higher grade any officer 
not above the grade of colonel now on the retired list of the Army or who may 
hereafter he retired who has served with exceptional efficiency as a commis¬ 
sioned officer on the active list for over forty years, participating in actual field 
service against hostile Indians, the Spanish-American War, has been awarded 
either a medal of honor, a distinguished-service medal, or has been brevetted 
for gallantry in action against hostile Indians, and has served in France in 
the World War, been cited for exceptionally meritorious and conspicuous or 
distinguished services in such war, and before retirement was repeatedly recom¬ 
mended for promotion to the grade of brigadier general.” 

The Chairman. General Harbord is here. The committee has asked him to 
come this morning to ask him his views on this particular bill and, perhaps, to 
have the advantage of discussion with him on the general situation of promotion 
on the retired list of officers who distinguished themselves in the last war, as 
this bill would rather tend to bring up that question in a general way. 

General Harbord, the committee will be very glad to have you discuss this 
bill in any way that you see fit. 

STATEMENT OF MAJ. GEN. J. G. HARBORD, UNITED STATES ARMY. 

General Harbord. The effect this bill will have will be to promote on the 
retired list, either now or eventually, some four officers of the Army, of whom 
two are now on the retired list, and two shortly will be there. The four officers 
are Col. W. .T. Nicholson, Col. Lloyd M. Brett, who are now on the retired list, 
and Col. John B. McDonald, and Col. Thomas B. Dugan, who will be on the 
retired list not later than January next. 

These officers are all known to me and have been for a good many years. 
Colonel Nicholson entered the service in 1876; Colonel Brett entered the service 
in 1879, a graduate, Colonel Dugan entered the service in 1882, and Colonel 
McDonald in 1881. They are all men who have taken part actively in the Indian 
Wars, the Spanish American War, and each of them commanded a brigade in the 
recent war; each of them has been decorated, either by the Medal of Honor or 
by the Distinguished Service Medal for his efficiency, and each of them has at 
various times been recommended for the grade of brigadier general. 


10340(5—22 


1 



2 


PROMOTION OF CERTAIN RETIRED ARMY OFFICERS. 




I happen to know, in the cases of Colonel Brett and Colonel Nicholson, that 
it was very much in the mind of the former Secretary of War, Mr. Baker, to 
promote them before they retired. I went to see him in behalf of Colonel Nichol¬ 
son who was then, in January of 1920, about to he retired. Secretary Baker be¬ 
lieved that these men should be given the grade of brigadier general before re¬ 
tirement. But it happened at that time that lie was confronted with a situa¬ 
tion in which there were eight colonels of the Army who were to be retired 
within a few months, beginning with Colonel Nicholson in January, and ending 
before the end of the year. There were eight colonels, not all of them of the 
same quality and efficiency of service of these men, but, nevertheless deserving 
men, who had reached the grade of colonel, and that matter appeared before 
him as a collective problem. He felt that if he started to promote any one of 
those eight that he would probably be under the necessity of carrying it through. 
He sa'd he could not afford to do it because he did not believe it was the in¬ 
tention of Congress that he should use a vacancy in the grade of brigadier gen¬ 
eral to leapfrog these men through to the retired list, but that he would be very 
much in favor of some legislation by Congress which would enable them to be 
retired. I bebeve the present Secretary of War feels the same way about it and 
reported favorably on the bill. 

Senator Warren. Did any of them, during the World War, have charge of 
divisions or serve for any time as division commanders? 

General Harbord. I do not recall that either of them served as division com¬ 
manders in the active operations on the front line. Colonel Nicholson com¬ 
manded a division here in the United States before he went over—the Seventy- 
ninth Division, of which General Kuhn was commander, and he was absent for 
some time. 

Colonel Dugan commanded a division after the armistice and brought it home. 
That may probably be true of Colonels Brett and McDonald ; I am not familiar 
as to that; but each of these men did reach the front line as brigade com¬ 
manders and all of them did well. I know in the autumn of 1918 or 1919, I do 
not recall which, General Pershing, knowing the time of retirement to be ap¬ 
proaching for Colonels Brett and Nicholson, sent a cablegram recommending 
that they be given the grade of brigadier general before retirement. But it was 
not considered practicable to do it by the War Department. 

Senator Warren. That was true of a great many officers, was it not; that 
they were recommended for promotion but the department here declined to 
promote them? 

General Harbord. That was true, of course, of literally hundreds of officers 
at the time of the armistice; but this was a little different recommendation, 
because it was made having in mind the fact of their early retirement. 

Senator Warren. Are you quite sure that the description here will only in¬ 
clude four officers? 

General Harbord. There is a fifth man about whom there might be some 
question. 

Senator Warren. However, any of these men would require nomination. 

General Harbord. Nomination; yes. 

Senator Warren. Nomination and confirmation? 

General Harbord. Yes; undoubtedly. 

The Chairman. I have not criticized the bill, taken of and by itself. The 
committee, however, had a discussion of this bill in executive session, I think 
about three weeks ago. In that discussion we went over the whole problem of 
suitable rewards, in the way of promotion upon the retired list or retirement 
with promoUon, for officers who distinguished themselves during the war. 
The committee recollected that it had reported on other occasions, and that the 
Senate had passed bills, one of which, for example, authorized the President 
to retire General Crowder when he should lie retired with the rank of lieu¬ 
tenant general on the retired list, as a recognition of his services as provost 
martial of the draft, which was certainly extraordinarily well performed. He 
was recruiting officer for an immense Army, and the way that selective service 
law was administered certainly reflected immense credit upon the man who 
stood at the top of the organization. 

Now, that bill passed the Senate, but failed in the House under rather unfor¬ 
tunate circumstances, as I recollect it. It reached the floor of the House and 
a good deal of contention arose. I think it was recommitted. At any rate it 
failed. 

Then this committee also reported a bill providing for the retirement, with 
the grade of lieutenant general, of Generals Liggett and Bullard. I think on 


PROMOTION OF CERTAIN RETIRED ARMY OFFICERS. 


3 


one occasion til's committee reported a l»ill including Generals Liggett. Bullard, 
and March. At any rate, the bill for the promotion in that way of Generals 
Liggett and Bullard was passed by the Senate. This committee recollected that 
General Liggett was a major general in the Regular Army before he went 
into the war. During the war he rose to the temporary rank of lieutenant 
general commanding a field army. Next to General Pershing, he had the 
heaviest responsibilities of the front line of any American officer, and he com¬ 
manded more men even than General Grant did in the Civil War. and he did 
it exceedingly well. At the conclusion of the war. of course, he had to sur¬ 
render his temporary grade or commission of lieutenant general and revert to 
the rank of major general, with which he started. He has come out of the 
war with no reward or recognition of any kind from his country . 

A somewhat similar statement can be made about General Bullard, who, I 
think, was a brigadier general. 

General Harbord. No; not at the outbreak of the war. He was made a briga¬ 
dier general in June of that .war. 

The Chairman. Very shortly after our entry into the war he became a 
brigadier general in the Regular Army. In France, however, General Bullard 
rose very quickly to the command of a division. He commanded the famous 
First Division for a considerable period. He then rose to command a 
corps and finally a field army. He was in command of the Second Field 
Army in the Meuse-Argonne operations and acquitted himself with great 
distinction. In the meantime he reached the grade of major general in the 
Regular Army by the usual course. So that while it can be said of General 
Bullard that he came out of the war with a higher permanent rank than the 
one lie had when he went in. nevertheless his services in the war were ex¬ 
traordinarily conspicuous and there has been no reward or special recognition 
extended to him by the Congress for those services. 

Now, those three officers, Generals Crowder, Liggett, and Bullard, have 
been selected by the Senate at least as worthy of special distinction. General 
Pershing is the only officer in the entire Army who has received any special 
recognition at the hands of Congress. I. for one, have felt very deeply about 
these other three officers, and the introduction of this bill, which has the sup¬ 
port of the War Department, brought to my mind and to the minds of other 
Senators, that situation. After the committee discussion of about three weeks 
ago, and with the informal authorization and consent of the committee, I wrote 
a letter to the Secretary of War pointing out the history of these three officers, 
who had failed of any recognition whatsoever, and asking if the War Depart¬ 
ment could not make some study of the situation in a general way and make 
some suggestion to us which would enable us to introduce, and possibly to 
pass, legislation which would cover these exceptional cases. 

Now. it might be entirely possible—I am sure it would be entirely proper— 
to include in such legislation provisions which would cover cases similar to 
those of Colonel Nicholson, Colonel Brett, Colonel McDonald, and Colonel Dugan. 
Frankly, my dread has been that we would experience, during the next 10. 15, 
or 20 years, the introduction of special bills for officers, and that we would get 
into a position where the officer with the most friends would get legislation for 
his benefit, and the officer who was remote, living far away and did not happen 
to have friends in Congress, would not get recognition. 

Now, I am not making these observations in any criticism of Colonels Brett, 
Nicholson. Dugan, or McDonald in the slightest degree, but it is a situation that 
this committee will have to face sooner or later. 

Senator Warren. Did you receive an answer to that letter? 

The Chairman. Yes. The answer was to the effect that while the suggestion 
contained in my letter was worthy of consideration, nevertheless the department 
seemed to feel that this bill should be passed, in view of the especially high 
qualifications demanded of the beneficiaries. 

General Harbord. The actual matter of the study of that question of men who 
ought to receive the kind of reward to which you have alluded has been turned 
over to General Pershing. The Secretary felt that naturally General Pershing 
was the only man with a viewpoint on all the rest of the Army, and I think the 
matter will eventually reach you in the form of a recommendation from the 
Secretary of War, based on final study made by him and General Pershing. 
Senator Bursum. Would this bill cover cases like those you mention? 

The Chairman. No. 

Senator Bursum. This only covers a situation where they have had 40 years’ 
service. That is considerable, is it not? 


4 


PROMOTION OF CERTAIN RETIRED ARMY OFFICERS. 


The Chairman. Yes. 

General Harbord. If it is proper, I would like to say that, of course, the 
Army would feel very much gratified if history did not repeat itself in such 
action by Congress as was taken after the Civil War. Congress denied lieu¬ 
tenant generalcies to such men as Thomas and Meade, and others of that class, 
when the memory of their deeds was still fresh in the minds of the people 
and while they were still on earth, but in later years gave it to men who did 
not rise above the grade of low field officers of the Civil War; it gave us a suc¬ 
cession of lieutenant generals in the early part of this century, presumably for 
services in the Civil War, because there wasn’t enough in their other services 
to have warranted it—men who were not known at all and would not have 
been thought of as more than aides-de-camp to men like Thomas and Meade. 

Senator Warren. When that law was passed it was without reference to 
the record of anybody, but with the idea that the Chief of Staff ought to be 
of higher grade than those over whom he had command; that the Chief of 
Staff ought to be a lieutenant general. It went on that way and took in by 
appointment other men, until it was finally dispensed with. 

General Harbord. There were one or two of them that never became Chief 
of Staff. General McArthur was not Chief of Staff and neither was General 
Corbin. 

Senator Warren. I thought General Corbin was. 

General Harbord. Not Chief of Staff; no. 

Senator Warren. I mean what they call Chief of Staff here in the depart¬ 
ment. 

The Chairman. He was Adjutant General. 

General Harbord. We feel that congressional recognition should come to a 
man when he is alive; that it is much better to have it come then than to have 
it come in the form of an epitaph. 

We have now in the hospital, dying, General McAndrew, who was recom¬ 
mended by General Pershing for a lieutenant generalcy in France in 1918. 

The Chairman. And who was an extraordinarily able officer. 

General Harbord. Yes. sir; and his condition to-day is no doubt due to the 
work he performed for this Government. 

The Chairman. There is no doubt about it. 

General Harbord. And he has been dying in the hospital for months. He is 
sinking steadily. He is absolutely paralyzed and can not even clear his own 
throat. That is what the doctors tell me. Now, if some recognition could 
come to that man before he died, of course, it would mean something, mean a 
great deal more than it would to have it come 10 years from now. 

The Chairman. You have brought up another case. General, that appeals to 
me immensely. It is a pity, when we are considering legislation of this kind, 
that we can not cover the ground a little more generally and establish a policy. 
My recollection is, and Senator Warren will correct me if I am wrong, that 
several years after the Civil War—I forget how long afterwards—Congress 
passed an act to the effect that the officers of the Regular Army who had served 
as officers during the Civil War, upon retirement, should be retired at one 
higher grade. 

Senator Warren. That went up to brigadiers. 

The Chairman. That was a general policy laid down, and it was done many 
years after the war, was it not. after 1890? 

Senator Warren. It was done since I have been in the Senate. 

General Harbord. It was after 1890, after I came in the Army. 

Senator Warren. It was 1893, 1894, or 1895. 

The Chairman. And during that period, from 1865 to the nineties, a large- 
number of distinguished officers died without any reward. 

General FTarbord. The men who had had the hardest service nearly all died. 
I do not doubt that 20 years from now Congress will be making a lot of third- 
raters and fourth-raters lieutenant generals. 

The Chairman. That is what I am afraid of. I am afraid of special bills. I 
am not afraid of this one. because this is a good bill. 

General Harbord. I think it is a good hill. I think these men deserve this, 
and they ought to have it. Of course, I haven’t the viewpoint and could not 

have the viewpoint that you gentlemen have of it, as to the way it might affect 

some general proposition or reward later on. 

The Chairman. The next hill which will he introduced will prescribe quali- 
cations not quite as high as these, and it may he successful. At least there 
will be a very large number of these hills introduced in the next 10 years, a 


PROMOTION OF CERTAIN RETIRED ARMY OFFICERS. 


5 


very large number. My hope is that we can at this comparativley early date 
settle on a policy which is generous but of such a nature that it will not be 
invaded and destroyed by special efforts. 

Senator Warren. That is a high ideal, Mr. Chairman, and I admire it, and I 
wish we could do that. But we are coming and going—or, rather, we are going 
and others are coming—and it will be tbe same thing. The committee will have 
to decide upon the merits of each one of these various cases in spite of any¬ 
thing that you can do as to policy. I remember that legislation bestowed addi¬ 
tional rank to all men up to tbe grade of brigadier general. Of course, that was 
rather general and was conceded to be, and it brought in, naturally, a lot of 
those officers who received another promotion. A good many of them were men 
who had been retired, and then we had to go down the list afterwards and put 
those up. 

Senator Bursum. The requirements of this bill are so stringent that it must 
have been drawn to cover just a few cases. 

General Harbord. It only covers four cases. 

The Chairman. It was drawn to cover two cases especially, and happened to 
take in two others. 

General Harbord. In this connection, as to rewards in general, we have 
already had an inquiry in the War Department from the chairman of the 
Military Committee of the House, as to the numbers that would be affected by 
legislation which might give every officer who had served thirty years, and then 
retired, and who had not in the meantime reached the grade of general officer, 
the highest grade that he had had'during the war; in other words, to make 
everybody a general on retirement who had been a general during the war and 
who did not get that grade on the regular list. 

The Chairman. That suggestion has been made and considered very seriously. 

Senator Warren. How many would that cover? 

General Harbord. I think it would cover about 50 men, if they all live. 
None of them were made generals. 

The Chairman. If they all live and have completed SO years of commissioned 
service. 

General Harbord. Yes. The additional expense would only be several 
hundred thousand dollars. Of course a large number of men will undoubtedly 
reach the grade of brigadier general on the active list. 

The Chairman. And they would have it anyway. 

General Harbord. Yes. 

Senator Warren. It is a matter of $750 for each one on the retired list- 

General Harbord. I think that is about the difference between colonels and 
brigadiers, but I do not know exactly. 

Senator Warren. On the retired list I think it would amount to that, but 
that is just a rough, offhand statement. 

General Harbord. That has not appeared in the form of any legislation, but 
just an inquiry from Mr. Kahn, of the Military Affairs Committee of the House, 
as to the numbers that would be affected. 

Tbe Chairman. There has been a good deal of discussion of that suggestion, 
that those that reached the rank of general officer during the war should be 
accorded that rank when they retired. That would cover these four officers, 
would it not? 

Senator Warren. Oh, yes; of course. 

General Harbord. l T es, sir. 

The Chairman. Is there anything else that you would like to emphasize with 
regard to this general question. General? 

General Harbord. No, sir; nothing else occurs to me. 

Senator Warren. Do you think the department gives this its entire approba¬ 
tion ? 

General Harbord. Yes; this bill, I am quite sure of it. • 

Senator Bursum. Could not this bill be amended so as to cover the other sit¬ 
uation, in order to save a consideration of other bills? 

The Chairman. It is possible, of course, to use this bill as a vehicle, by ex¬ 
tensive amendment and redrafting of it. 

Senator Bursum. It is easier to pass one bill than it is to pass two bills 
sometimes. 

General Harbord. I do not know to what state that study which is being 
made of the general subject has progressed. I have asked Genersil Pershing 
about it several times, and he told me he was making a list, and I think the 
Secretary will be disposed to handle it very promptly. 



6 


PROMOTION OF CERTAIN RETIRED ARMY OFFICERS. 


The Chairman. I want it understood that my observations are not prompted 
by any hostility to this bill as such, but its introduction does open up a vista 
that we will have to examine. We thank you, General Harbord. 

STATEMENT OF MR. ASHBY WILLIAMS. 

Mr. Williams. I came here, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, just to say a word 
in behalf of General Brett, from the standpoint of a civilian in the war. I 
went into the Army as a captain, through the grade of major, and finally 
reached the grade of colonel. I served during the entire war under Colonel 
Brett, first at Camp Meade, and later in the sector of the Meuse-Argonne. I 
can not, of course, say anything to you about the policy of the hill or anything of 
that sort, but I simply want you gentlemen to know that I speak in behalf of 
7,000 or 8,000 men and officers who served under Colonel Brett. 

The civilians, especially civilian officers, who served during the war, had not 
been tied up with any military ideals before they went in. and the result was 
that we found the civilian officer was a very apt critic of military matters and 
men. And I can say to you gentlemen in absolute frankness and sincerity that 
General Brett never received a criticism so far as I ever heard or knew. That 
is an extremely exceptional case because we were more than apt to criticise not 
only the man’s personality but his military ability. 

General Brett’s military qualities were appreciated by the civilians who 
served under him and lie inspired the utmost confidence. It was a matter of 
common talk among the outfit. Take, for example, the movement which he exe¬ 
cuted on the 1st of November, up in the Meuse-Argonne battle. The Three 
hundred and twenty-fifth Infantry was in front, organized in columns of bat¬ 
talions. The barage was put down too far ahead of the leading outfit, so that 
when they got up to move forward the Germans popped up from shell holes 
and tore the outfit all to pieces. The battalion commander was killed and it 
looked like a holdup; but General Brett executed a very wonderful and very 
prompt flank movement by throwing the Three hundred and nineteenth Infantry 
on the left flank and flanking the Germans. That prompt and decisive action 
enabled the line to move on and by the next morning we were following the 
Germans in trucks. 

Now, those things sift through to the men, and every man in the outfit 
swore by Genera. Brett. 

I can make cue statement further than that, and that is that every man 
in the outfit I— i Colonel Brett and still loves him. I know that every man 
in his outfit who served under him feels to-day, whether he is right or not, 
that the passage of this bill is not a matter of gratuity but of common justice, 
and they are all anxious to see it done. 

General Brett had the reputation of studying his field service regulations 
for half an hour before breakfast every morning and of being a thorough mas¬ 
ter of military tactics. There is absolutely no suggestion of anything wrong 
with his character or conduct. I recall one instance where one of my kitch¬ 
ens got stuck in the mud and General Brett got down off of his car and put 
his shoulder to the wheel and helped pull it out. Of course he was getting 
old and not very strong, but his interest was just as much as that of the other 
men, and they pushed the wagon out. 

So that I say to you, gentlemen, in all sincerity, that 7,000 or S.OOO men 
feel that the passage of this bill is not a matter of gratuity but a matter of 
justice to General Brett. 

(Whereupon the committee proceeded to the consideration of other busi¬ 
ness. ) 


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